Decision on Pakistan getting duty-free access to EU next week

Nizam Ahmed A two-day meeting of the General Council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will decide next week whether Pakistan, a developing country -- not a least developed one -- will get duty-free access to the European Union (EU) or not, officials said on Thursday. The EU last year decided to extend duty-exempted facility on 75 items, including textiles, garments, footwear and leather goods for three years starting in 2012, to Pakistan as a special assistance to cover the losses caused by devastating floods there. Bangladesh early this month raised a serious objection to the EU's decision of providing such a tariff concession for the items that was likely to hamper Bangladesh's exports of, at least, eight garment products. According to the rules of the 153-nation WTO, only the least developed countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh are entitled to get duty-free access to any EU country. Representatives from the LDCs including Bangladesh are seeking to garner support against the EU's decision as, according to the provisions of the WTO, only the LDCs are entitled for the duty-free access to any bloc, officials said. "The meeting to be held on November 30 and the following day in Geneva will be a test for the WTO members whether they will mix issues of trade with those of aid," a senior official of the ministry of commerce (MoC) told the FE. "So long the world knew that trade and aid are two different things which cannot be mixed up," the official said. Bangladesh has no objection if the EU wants to give assistance to flood-hit Pakistan, but it has a serious reservation over giving trade facilities in the name of assistance, the official said. "Trade should be interfaced with business and aid should be addressed through providing financial assistance," as a top policymaker of the MoC told the FE. India which also objected initially against the EU decision to give duty-free access to Pakistani products, withdrew, however, its opposition last September. According to media reports, some Indian garment exporters, already under pressure because of the worldwide economic gloom, had been worried about being squeezed even harder by the EU's preferential treatment for Pakistan. The Indian media said the withdrawal of the 9.6 per cent duty in the EU for Pakistan, would hit hard the Indian exporters who would continue paying the duty, and were already worried over garment exports from Bangladesh following the annulment made by the Indian Prime Minister during his visit to Dhaka last September about duty-free access of 46 items to the Indian market. Later, in the recently-held SAARC summit in the Maldives, Bangladesh got duty-free entry for more 25 items to India. Meanwhile, the policy-maker in the MoC had told the FE that his country had not made any objection to the EU decision but simply pointed out certain principles about trade and aid at the WTO meeting in Geneva, November 07. He said Bangladesh had earlier welcomed global assistance for flood-hit Pakistan which had some devastating effects there in 2010. Bangladesh garment (woven and knit) exports to the EU reached to $10.52 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2011 from $7.19 billion in the previous fiscal, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said. The country's global garment exports stood at a record level of $17.91 billion in FY 2011 against $12.5 billion in the previous fiscal.